IMPACT OF FLORIDA SCHOOL SHOOTING
DEMOCRATS WHINE ABOUT GUN CONTROL
MEDIA, TOO
CHAMBER CUT-OFF PASSES
BILLS MOVE, BILLS DIE
BILL STATUS COLUMN CHANGING
PUBLIC HEARINGS NEXT WEEK
THREE WEEKS LEFT IN THE SESSION

At this point it is difficult to assess the impact of the school shooting in Florida on Wednesday – another Valentine’s Day Massacre. 17 people lost their lives to an individual who had been sending clear signals that he was a very disturbed person, yet no action was taken. According to some reports the FBI was informed of his threat, but no results of that warning are known.

Of immediate concern is the possible impact in Olympia THIS session. While bills are technically dead following the designated cut-off dates, exceptions can be made and bills can be revived. It’s rare, but it happens.

The day after the Florida school shooting, Democrats in the Washington legislature held a press conference to whine about their inability to pass “meaningful gun control bills” – despite the fact that they have a majority in BOTH the state House and Senate. (Is it possible that some Democrat legislators pay more attention to their constituents than they do to their “leaders?) They called for the initiative process to be used to pass what they couldn’t get in the legislature. These are the same Democrats who have been complaining about initiatives for years and who have tried to limit the procedure.

This was clearly a call to their Seattle sugar daddies to throw money at another gun initiative this year. Promise a solution to a problem and throw enough money at it to fund misleading advertising and BINGO! Instant gun control. Stand by!

Seattle stations also noticed that SB 5444 (expanded b/g check for “assault weapons” failed to make it out of the Senate. Look for media and Democrat leadership to be talking.

The chamber cut-off was this past Wednesday at 5 p.m. House bills that have not made it out of the House and Senate bills that have not passed the Senate are dead for the session. With the caveat that it ain’t over ’til the fat lady sings!

At the time of the chamber cut-off, the following bills failed to pass out of their original chamber: HBs 1122 (safe storage) and 1483 (destruction of forfeited firearms), and SBs 5441 (involuntary freeze on firearm possession), 5506 (transfer of firearms at non-profit events) and 6297 (firearm possession/history of violence). SB 6298 (DV harassment firearm ban) passed out of the Senate and sits in House Judiciary. HB 2519 (return of seized CPLs) was significantly amended on the floor of the House to allow active duty and honorably discharged military members aged 18-20 to apply for and receive a concealed pistol license, and to possess handguns outside the restrictions pertaining to other 18-20 year olds.

Executive sessions in House Judiciary (committee votes) were conducted on HBs 5553 (voluntary waiver of firearm rights/suicidal) and 5992 (bump stocks). An attempt to amend 5992 (bump stocks) to grandfather existing owners was defeated. (I’m sure a floor amendment will be offered to allow grandfathering of existing owners. This might be a good time to call your Representatives and politely but firmly ask them to support grandfathering on SB 5992.) Both passed out of committee on split votes, both now go to House Rules awaiting a floor vote.

For ease of reading/following, I have deleted all of the bills that have died at this point from the “BILL STATUS” column. The end-of-session GOAL Post will contain the complete list of bills. Those still listed with a “died” annotation were bills that died at chamber cut-off.

Two public hearings will be conducted next week on gun bills. The Senate Law & Justice Committee will take public testimony on HB 2519 on Tuesday, 20 February and the House Judiciary Committee will hear testimony on SB 6298 on Wednesday, 21 February. Both bills will be up for executive session (committee vote) on the day following the public session.

There are three weeks left in the regular session. The list of active bills has narrowed considerably, with five more dropping out at the chamber cut-off. But it still bears watching. Any time the legislature is in session bears watching!

OTHER DATA: Copies of pending legislation (bills), legislative schedules and other information are available on the legislature’s web site at “www.leg.wa.gov“. Bills are available in Acrobat (.pdf) format. You may download a free version of Adobe Acrobat Reader from Adobe’s web site (http://www.adobe.com). You may also obtain hard copy bills, initiatives, etc, in the mail from the Legislative Bill Room FREE OF CHARGE by calling 1-360-786-7573. Copies of bills may also be ordered toll free by calling the Legislative Hotline at (800) 562-6000. You may also hear floor and committee hearing action live at http://www.tvw.org/ (you need “RealAudio” to do this, available free at the TVW web site). Each bill’s web page contains a link to any public hearing at the bottom of the page.

By reading the House and Senate “bill reports” (hbr, sbr) for each bill, you can see how individual committee members voted. By reading the “roll call” for each bill, you can see how the entire House or Senate voted on any bill. The beauty of the web site is that ALL this information is available, on line, to any citizen.

GET THE WORD OUT: If you want to subscribe to the GOAL Post by e-mail, send a message to “jwaldron@halcyon.com“. Please pass GOAL Post on to anyone you believe may have an interest in protecting our rights. Better yet, make a couple of copies of this message, post it on your gun club’s bulletin board, and leave copies with your local gun shop(s). PERMISSION IS HEREBY GRANTED TO DUPLICATE OR REDISTRIBUTE GOAL POST PROVIDED IT IS REPRODUCED IN ITS ENTIRETY WITHOUT TEXTUAL MODIFICATION AND CREDIT IS GIVEN TO GOAL. I can be reached at “jwaldron@halcyon.com” or by telephone at (425) 985-4867. Unfortunately, I am unable to mail hard copy GOAL Post to individuals. Limited numbers of hard copies MAY be available at the Second Amendment Foundation book table at WAC gun shows.

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“The right of the individual citizen to bear arms in defense of himself, or the state, shall not be impaired, but nothing in this section shall be construed as authorizing individuals or corporations to organize, maintain or employ an armed body of men.”